Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"The trash percentage of porn is so high that, unless the producers are collectively insane, most consumers must actually want images of women who are doing the bad-porn thing. [...] I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that plausibility is exactly what most porn consumers don't want. That somehow they feel better when their fantasies are safely distant from reality. All the possible reasons I can imagine for this are very sad. One reason could be simple old-fashioned sexual guilt. [...]

"A more plausible construction for most potential porn consumers today is that they have issues about female power. Men who get lots of attention from attractive three-dimensional women are not likely to be buying porn-site subscriptions. Therefore, we can safely assume that the consumers who define demand patterns for porn producers generally feel that their sex life is hemmed in by female choices and the female power to refuse. Defining the objects of their desire as 'cum-sucking sluts', to be used but not related to any emotional way, is a kind of equalizing move in the sexual-power game.

"This theory differs sharply from conventional feminist critiques pf porn, in which porn seen as a ratification of existing power relationships that privilege males. The difference is testable. If the conventional theory is correct, porn should be becoming more and more irrelevant as women become more independent -- or, at least, assume the nostalgic character of references to a golden age of male privilege that has already passed.

"On the other hand, if bad porn is a compensation for male feelings of powerlessness, we should expect it to become steadily tackier, uglier, more strident, and more popular in direct proportion to the degree that female power in the real world increases."

-- Eric Raymond, 2002-06-07